Mikhail Kalinin

Mikhail Kalinin (19 November 1875-3 June 1946) was head of state of the Russian SFSR from 1919 to 1946, preceding Nikolay Shvernik.

Biography
Mikhail Kalinin was born in Verkhniaia Troitsa, Tver Governorate, Russia in 1875, and he became an active revolutionary after joining the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1898. He joined its Bolshevik faction in 1903. He was involved in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, when he became Mayor of Petrograd. In 1919, he became Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and de facto head of state, a function that became official upon the foundation of the Soviet Union in 1922. Subsequently, he was remarkable less for his actions, but for his unique ability as an old comrade of Vladimir Lenin to escape the Great Purge and die a natural death, remaining in his (albeit ceremonial) high office throughout. He achieved this through a peculiar combination of adaptability, cunning, and blandness.